#ep commentary

[deadscottblog]

This is great so far 🤣

[shenmeizhuang-blog]

General And I - Ep 43

I'll confess this: due to finals, I missed a whole slew of episodes, but just picked back up starting from Ep 40. After watching these few episodes, I'm frankly not interested enough to bother with whatever happened in between (I'm assuming BPT got kidnapped by HX/Bai Lan, causing angsty separation that, after the events of Ep 43, is but worsened.) In this episode, things finally pick up for me so that I'm less indifferent and more invested.

Episode 43 was one good episode. On the spot thoughts:

I’m loving watching Ping Ting and Zui Jun together, while I vacillate between indifference and annoyance at He Xia, Yao Tian, and Bai Lan in general. I’m not quite sure what to feel about the whole ordeal with the wolves -- which actually look like impressive, legitimately real wolves that aren’t CG! -- or why they stopped when Ping Ting sadly and intensely put her hand forward, while they kept chasing poor Zui Jun who had to fling water at them. 

Ping Ting and Chu Bei Jie have crossed paths (without realizing it) so many times now -- even He Yichen had far better luck with Mo Sheng!

My poor Chu Bei Jie! I’m guessing I missed something within the episodes I skipped, but I’m actually very confused at why Yang Feng is so antagonistic and accusatory towards Bei Jie. Why or how is any of this his fault? Also, Wallace Chung’s acting.

Poor Ping Ting :’( (Just let yourself be happy!)

I actually feel like shipping Zui Jun with Pan Lu (is that his name? I watch raw), despite earlier indications of her and Mo Ran (who, by the way, I haven’t seen in a long time. By the way, how is he?). Though I’m fond of Mo Ran, too. Please no stupid love triangle!

The entire sequence with Zui Jun and Pan Lu made me wonder how the story would go if BPT had Zui Jun’s personality hahaha

Had it been any other time, I would’ve laughed out loud at the obviously fake skeleton, but I was eating when I was watching this . . . and kind of lost my appetite. :/ (NOTE TO SELF: Don’t eat when watching dramas?!)

I like angst. Therefore, I liked this episode. 

[pasta-abomination]

“Then let me help you get over him!!”

Alex.

Honey.

What are you saying.

(I’m sure Maggie would be down for participation credits.)

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[strelizia-02-blog]

“I’m okay living like this. This is what it means to be human after all. I’m happy and having fun with everyone.”

[becausegodapproves]

Ahhhh I forgot how good "Good God, Y'all" was. that's ep 5.02 with the Horsemen War, it's really a great episode I find, I really really love episodes which have civilians in them, and introduce them to hunting. ahhh.

Also as a bonus, the scene from "Good God, Y'all" isn't mentioned often for smart!Dean, but I personality Dean has to have some smarts to figure out the whole War scheme going on. <3. anyways just rewatching an ep, ahh the good old times., this is why I love spn.

[becausegodapproves]

sooo... spn 10.03 Sole Survivor, so I am a little disappointed by the episode. alone, it's a decent and satisfactory ep, however taking into context that this was supposed to be a major episode, i.e the ep where Dean gets healed/ demon!dean defeated, I was expecting a lot more, I was expecting tears and heartfelt reunion those kinds of things, instead I felt like the emotions were kinda turned down, everything was just going through the motions I supposed. Even Cas with telling Sam that he has to kill Dean if it comes to it. I mean even without calling out to my inner Destiel, I'd expect Cas to care a little more about the death of one of his best friend (unless we are supposed to see this as Cas having come to terms with Dean being dead ever since Metatron said so and never having seen Demon!Dean as Dean.... but still it was a little off how little he cared) (and every Destiel fan out there must be complaining right now) Sam's part was a little better, I especially like the getting Burgers for his brother.

Overall not a lot happened in this ep beside fixing Dean of his demon problem and Cas of his grace problem, both temporairily, but it was still fairly interesting with the mouse hunt in the bunker and Crowley, ever the fun Lord of Hell. 

Another thing to note though, I said last ep how much I like that Demon!Dean still feels like Dean, but wow damn, did anyone feel like Demon!Dean has a particular speech pattern in this ep? I can't say if I like it or not, but it's definitely something interesting, I find that Jensen talks differently while playing Demon!Dean, it's kinda nice, it has this kinda suave, devil-may-care tone to it, I kinda like it, at the same time that I think it's really out of character for Dean, but then again, this is Demon!Dean we are talking about. 

The other thing I really don't like about this ep is that it seems to look like it's going to take the path of season 7. This ep was basically a "fix-it-all" kind of ep and throw some new problems. (i.e season 7 recipe, fix the Godstiel problem because we don't know shit how to deal with something that big, and just throw in some new baddie to keep the season going). Basically I thing the ending of the ep, (with the red haired women) is the introduction of the season's big bad. Which disappoint me somewhat, I really dont like the introduction of a new villain out of nowhere to through things into shit again just because you've apparently fixed all major conflict for the meanwhile and need a new problem to solve.  I personally think this has always been a problem that comes with the episodic format of SPN, SPN is in it's core an episodic series overlapping with a main arc, but for things to continue on an episodic scale (i.e. with monsters of the week) they have to fix previous issues which are obstacles to it, i.e Sam cannot hunt monster of the week with Dean if Dean is still a Demon, hence why in a previous post I said that I wish Dean had simply remained in the bunker and kept it a secret that he was a Demon, it's the only way things could have worked out in an episodic setting. But the story went instead with Dean full out demon and Sam hunting him, so obviously it's got to stop a some point soon so the boys can go back to their road trip and hunting weekly monsters, boooo.... but it is how it goes I supposed. which is totally sad too, I mean I saw so many potentials for this show, but to stick to the constraint of the shows episodic format, the plot sort of has to shaped itself to it, even if it means getting rid of awesome plot possibilities. Honestly I don't know how Season 4 and 5 could have happened so well, they're both absolute gold because the angels being semi-absent/present makes it completely possible to have their episodic setting while having a main arc that sticks through. 

[meret118]

Thoughts on Teen Wolf – 3.01

No spoilers for future eps  other than a new set being introduced this season, and the This Might Hurt promo with Scott.

With the exception of a huge Race!Fail that pissed the hell out of me I really liked it.

I like the new intro with the exception of Scott levitating.  That just looks dumb to me.  If the first season was fire, and the second was water, I’m guessing this season is earth due to the hands coming out of the dirt.

When they crashed through the window on the motorcycle I thought at first it was the window in Derek’s new loft, and was horrified they were wrecking it already.

ROTFL at the Mega!Twin. :) They evidently got the Beacon Hills werewolf dress code too – shirtless or leather. *g* Scott has a cloth jacket rather than a leather one, the rebel. ;)

I loved them making fun of Posey’s tattoo. I wonder what Melissa will say when she sees it on Scott? I liked the explanation we got from him later too, and how it tied into the word of the day.  An open wound of missing Allison and two (wedding) bands.  Rings are used in wedding ceremonies because the circles are eternal with no beginning or ending - the symbolism of the tattoo and the tattoo itself being the opposite of ephemeral like his feelings for Allison.

I could make out Call of the Wild, A Farewell to Arms and White Fang on the pile of books Scott was reading. Did anyone else get any other titles? I knew what they were about vaguely, but looked them up to refresh my memory.

The Call of the Wild is a novel by American author Jack London published in 1903. The story takes place in the Yukon at the time of the 19th-century Klondike Gold Rush when strong sled dogs were in high demand. A dog named Buck is the central character, who at the beginning of the story is domesticated, but when he is snatched from a ranch in California and sold into the brutal life of an Alaskan sled dog he reverts to more atavistic traits. Buck is forced to adjust and survive the cruel treatment, fight to dominate other dogs, and survive in a harsh climate. Eventually he sheds the veneer of civilization, relies on primordial instincts and the lessons he has learned, to become a leader in the wild.

White Fang is the titular character and a novel by American author Jack London. First serialized in Outing magazine, it was published in 1906. The story takes place in Yukon Territory, Canada, during the Klondike Gold Rush at the end of the 19th-century, and details a wild wolfdog's journey to domestication. White Fang is a companion novel (and a thematic mirror) to London's best-known work, The Call of the Wild, which is about a kidnapped, domesticated dog embracing his wild ancestry to survive and thrive in the wild.

Much of the novel is written from the view-point of his canine character, enabling London to explore how animals view their world and how they view humans. White Fang examines the violent world of wild animals and the equally violent world of humans. The book also explores complex themes including morality and redemption.

The books relate to Scott’s struggle to balance not just his human and more primal werewolf nature, but also the peaceful and violent sides of himself.  Given the violence people do in these books and humans have done on the show I don’t think we can necessarily equate that to human = peaceful and good, and werewolf = violent and evil however, though I did initially think that’s what the This Might Hurt promo with tattooed Scott drowning untattooed Scott meant.

A Farewell to Arms is set during WWI and deals with the horrors of war and the ephemeral happiness to be found in love in a violent world. The main character is an American serving the Italian army as an ambulance driver.  He falls in love with a British nurse’s aide. They eventually flee from the violence of war and go to neutral Switzerland, but she dies delivering a stillborn child.  I can see Scott identifying with the love story ripped apart by violence, or it could be foreshadowing a storyline for season 3.

"The offing was barred by a black bank of clouds, and the tranquil waterway leading to the uttermost ends of the earth flowed sombre under an overcast sky – seemed to lead into the heart of an immense darkness."  Assuming I'm remembering the quote correctly, the English teacher is reading from The Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, a book that deals with the fight between good and evil not just externally through conflict between different people, but more importantly internally through the conflict inherent in each person. Just like with the London books, the characters have to choose whether they will be good or evil.

I have concerns about what we’ve seen of Lydia so far, but I’m reserving judgment for the moment. If they’re showing a positive view of a teen girl who likes sex then great. If she’s sleeping with guys because she needs their validation to feel good about herself, (I hated her going back to Jackson after he treated her like shit being presented as a romantic happy ending!), or is later punished for enjoying sex then I have a problem with it.

When the stag crashed into the car with Allison in it, I assumed it related symbolically to her as Artemis, (Diana to the Romans), goddess of the hunt and the wilderness. Allison is an archer like Artemis and deer were sacred to Artemis. (My headcanon is that Allison’s middle name is Diana.)

Adding a dog, (Prada), and crows to the mix made me think of Celtic mythology instead since all those animals are often prominent in those stories.

From Celtic Revival:

Deer / Stag: The deer was the principal animal hunted by the Celts for food. The doe was associated with most woodland Goddesses, such as Saba and Flidais, and is their totem animal. The stag was often seen as the incarnate form of woodland Gods such as Cernunnos. White stags were considered to be from the Otherworld and, in myth, their appearance always heralded some profound change in the lives of those in the story. Considered in Celtic mythology to be among the oldest creatures in existence.

Dog: Sacred to the faeries of Ireland and Scotland probably because they were held in high regard by the Tuatha de Danann. Many Celtic myths involve dogs or dog familiars, which belonged to heroic figures or deities, and wars were often fought for and over them such as the one between Fionn MacCumhal and King Arthur. Examples of the importance of Celtic dogs are found in the myths of Gwyn Ap Nuada, Cuchulain, Amaethaon, and Taliesin. Dogs are also the archetypal symbols of shapeshifters.

Raven/Crow: The Crow is deeply linked to Crone Goddesses such as Badb, and to Goddess of war or death like the Morrigan. The Raven is similar to the crow in that it is deeply associated with death deities. But, while the crow is usually reserved as a spirit form for feminine deities, the raven has been the Otherworldly body for both Gods and Goddesses. Like the crow, it flew over Celtic battlefields as the deity incarnate. The raven is most closely associated with the Irish/Welsh God Bran. I’m certainly not an expert, but personally I associate crows or ravens in Celtic mythology with Morrigan rather than Bran.

Given the tattoo on Derek’s back, (The site also has good information on triskeles.), I’m guessing the stag has more to do with Cernunnos than Artemis.  Assuming JD intended the animals to mean anything symbolically at all that is.

The one thing I really hated about the ep was they killed the new POC character. She didn’t even get to have a name!  

“I understand the whole mystery arc thing, but I think the main problem with 'The Girl' not having a name is Jeff Davis's very apparent problem when it comes to writing characters of Color. We still have no backstory for either Deaton or Morrell (Magical POC trope) and we never learned Boyd's name in show canon, just on twitter, nor do we know anything about his past. So I think the problem lies with having yet another POC fall into that ~mysterious POC thing he's got going on.”  -- Werefoxes.

IMO he especially has problems writing black POC characters, but otherwise ITA. I did NOT appreciate her being introduced only to be fridged later. :(

ETA - My thoughts on the symbol we see on Lydia and Allison's wrists.